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Recap: Jets Get Burned in 4-2 Loss to Flames

What started off as a potentially decent game for the Winnipeg Jets turned ugly as they lost 4-2 to the Calgary Flames.

The first period was relatively bland to watch with neither team scoring a goal. The second period was where things took off as Sean Monahan scored the first goal for the Flames and the Jets woke up a little bit. Nikolaj Ehlers snapped a beautiful pass to Mark Scheifele who caught it and put it in for the Jets first goal of the evening and the game was tied heading into the third.

The third period was a nightmare on ice. There are just no other words to describe it. The Jets looked out of place and played sloppy allowing the Flames to rack up three more goals, two for Josh Jooris (who?) and another for Monahan. The Jets responded to this in a very aggressive manner, but it was misdirected. Andrew Ladd decided that he had had enough of Derek Engelland and tried his hardest to fight him and Mark Scheifele got a bit salty with another Flames player. All of this led to the Brian McGrattan taking an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty (served by Jiri Hudler) combined with a 10 minute conduct penalty allowing the Jets a power play in the last few minutes of the game. While this didn’t really matter in the end, given that they still lost, it did allow for Chris Thorburn to score the team’s second goal of the night.

Ten Thoughts

1) Thank you, thank you Anaheim Ducks for not re-signing Mathieu Perreault. He was far and away the best player for the Jets tonight and I have faith that he will continue to be great as the season commences.

2) Nikolaj Ehlers, again, was fantastic. Are you getting tired of hearing about how great he is in these recaps? No? Good, because if he stays with the team there will be a lot more of these exclamations in the future, I am sure of it. While the rest of the kids can obviously play, for some reason Ehler's ability with the puck and his intelligence on the ice make him stand out more than others. Even Nicolas Petan who, while he had a solid game overall, wasn't in the spotlight as much tonight.

3) Evander Kane was actually on the ice tonight, people. This is not a joke or a trick. He was playing in the game. For real. I really think his hockey skills are being outshone by the excitement surrounding all the new kids abilities and expect him to stand out a bit more when the regular season hits. All joking aside, I love Evander and want him to stay a Jet for a long time so that he can show what he can do.

4) While this may only be the pre-season and the games don't count for any points, they are still important while at the same time not being important at all. What's scary about this game is that we are creeping ever so close to the season's start and the Jets outing tonight was almost an exact copy/paste of last season.

5) Zach Bogosian Injury Watch 2014/15 Update: Possible injury sighted. Awaiting more information and/or his appearance in the next game to confirm. (Are you really surprised when he gets injured anymore?)

6) I am honestly at a loss for words when it comes to describing Michael Hutchinson tonight. I have long been a fan of the guy and honestly hope that his game comes together for the regular season because tonight was less than stellar to put it mildly. Having watched him play last season and catching a few games when he was with the Boston Bruins organization, I know he is capable of more. I hope that the jump from the AHL to the NHL goes well for him and he’s able to prove that he’s worth his spot instead of crashing and burning.

7) Oh, hi Devin Setoguchi! So nice seeing you in a different jersey. Hope things are well for you in Calgary. Um… bye.

8) A note to Chevy et al: Draft and Develop is not your secret weapon. Calgary has apparently been up to the same shenanigans what with players like Jooris and Johnny Gaudreau playing their hearts out tonight. I don’t know too much about the Flames organization (that’s right, I don’t know everything about every team in the NHL, so sue me) but I presume that these two, along with possibly Sven Baertschi, are in the running for spots with the Flames team based on how they played tonight.

9) When I first saw the lines for tonight, I wasn't sure who to be more excited to see. The first line of Kane-Scheifele-Ehlers was in a tie with the second line of Ladd-Petan-Frolik on the "who are you most excited about?" meter for me. I can definitely say now that the first line's abilities were on display a little more as they came together and made a noticeable difference on the ice, primarily with the gorgeous Scheifele goal. Frolik was amazing (as he is most nights) but Petan was a little quieter than he has been and Ladd was too busy trying to fight with Flames players towards the end of the game to make me excited about them together tonight.

10) Trouba, O Trouba. Where are you? Did you get lost? Do we need to put your face on the backs of milk cartons? Please come back soon, Trouba. We need you in good form for the regular season.

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